MIT rejects White House offer of federal funding for supporting Trump's agenda

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) became the first university to reject a White House offer of federal funding yesterday (10 October), tied to aligning its policies with President Donald Trump's conservative agenda.

The government's proposal, sent to nine universities in early October, would require the institutions to stop considering factors related to gender, ethnicity, race and other factors when admitting students, among other stipulations, if they wanted to receive federal funding.

It would also require them to create an academic environment that was friendly to conservative ideas.

The government's document "includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution," wrote MIT President Sally Kornbluth in a letter to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

"Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."

The agreement offered by Trump's administration requires universities to "commit themselves to... transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas."

The offer was also sent to the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, Brown University, Dartmouth College and Vanderbilt University.

They have not yet responded, with replies expected by 20 October.

In MIT's letter, its president said the university's existing policies "meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document."

Trump has led an assault on US higher education institutions since taking office, demanding they bring their policies in line with conservative views or lose federal funding that forms the backbone of the US academic research system.

The campaign has seen mixed success, with some univerities entering into negotiations with Trump while others have remained defiant.

Trump led an unprecedented crackdown on elite university Harvard, accusing it of liberal bias and of failing to protect its Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests last year.

Last month, Trump said his administration was close to reaching a $500 million financial settlement with Harvard under which the elite academic institution would operate trade schools.

In early September, however, a Boston judge ordered the administration to lift its freeze on approximately $2.6 billion in federal funds for Harvard, writing that Trump's Department of Education "used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country's premier universities."

Two weeks later, the administration imposed fresh restrictions on Harvard's access to government money, requiring the university to use its own funds to pay out student financial aid packages that federal officials have promised.

In July, Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million to the administration and pledged to obey rules that bar it from taking race into consideration in admissions or hiring.

The University of Pennsylvania, another Ivy League institution, also bowed to Trump administration concerns, announcing it would ban transgender women from participating in women's sports.